Toronto snowbirds found slain in Florida home

Officers from the Broward Sheriff's Office and the Hallandale Beach Police
Department at the Venetian Park Apartments complex, just north of Miami,
on Jan. 11, 2013. The bodies of David Pichosky, 71, and Rochelle Wise, 66, were
found in one of the units. (Photo courtesy of Erika Pesantes, South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

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A retired Toronto couple has been brutally slain at their winter home in south Florida.

The Hallandale Beach Police Department says the man and woman were found Thursday in their condo 30 km north of Miami by a concerned neighbour.

Investigators confirmed the deaths are a double homicide.

“(It’s) not natural causes,” an officer at the scene told media. “Foul play is suspected.”

A neighbour, using a spare key to enter their townhouse in the Venetian Park complex on Northeast 25th Ave., made the grisly discovery around 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Police have identified the victims as David Pichosky, 71, and Rochelle Wise, 66.

Residents of the quiet complex told the South Florida Sun Sentinel they were stunned by the double murder.

Pichosky, a snowbird for 20 years who was known to his Florida neighbours as Donny, married Wise after his first wife died.

But the ripple effects have been felt even more in Forest Hill, where the couple resided for eight months of the year.

A relative of Pichosky, reached by phone Friday, said the grief-stricken family is asking for privacy.

“We’re still trying to absorb everything,” said the woman, who did not give her name.

Those who knew the couple at their building on Bathurst St., north of Eglinton Ave. W., are also trying to come to grips with the killings.

“This is just devastating,” George Bergman, their superintendent, said.

He said the seniors had lived in a second-floor apartment at least since he was hired six years ago.

“They were wonderful people,” Bergman said.

He said he believed Pichosky was an accountant.

Longtime resident Lil Strean was stunned by the news.

“I’m shocked out of my mind,” Strean said, adding that she and most residents have lived in the building since it was built 30 years ago.

Staff at Bialik Hebrew Day School, up the street from the couple’s building, are also mourning the deaths of Wise, their former vice-principal, and her husband.

“Rochelle was an adored member of the community and respected as an outstanding educator and woman of great character and kind spirit,” the school said in a statement.

A parent out front of the school was taken aback by the killings.

“That’s just terrible news,” said the woman, who didn’t give her name.

Wise was vice-principal of the school’s elementary students for many years.

“She retired about two and a half years ago,” the mother said. “She was a lovely lady.”

Wise also served as founding director of Crestwood Valley Day Camp from 1999 to 2005.

The camp’s current directors remember Wise as “an inspiration to a generation of kids” and “an amazing friend.”

“Rochelle was a selfless individual who took a genuine interest in the lives of everyone she came across,” they said in a statement.

The bodies of the couple, who attended the Shaarei Shomayim synagogue on Glencairn Ave. when in Toronto, were removed from their Florida home, their vehicle was towed by police and forensics officers spent the day gathering evidence.

Investigators remain tight-lipped about the slayings, so how and why they were killed is still a mystery.

The RCMP is co-ordinating with local authorities, as are Canadian consular officials.

“Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the two Canadian citizens who passed away in … Florida,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Chrystiane Roy said, adding assistance will be offered to their family.

As Advertised in the Winnipeg SUN

Toronto snowbirds found slain in Florida home

A retired Toronto couple has been brutally slain at their winter home in south Florida.
The Hallandale Beach Police Department says the man and woman were found Thursday in their condo 30 km north of Miami by a concerned neighbour.
Investigators confirmed the deaths are a double homicide.
“(It’s) not natural causes,” an officer at the scene told media. “Foul play is suspected.”